Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living.
Parallel translations
- WEB Man doesn’t know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.
- KJV Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
- BSB No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.
- NASB “Mankind does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living.
- NLT No one knows where to find it, for it is not found among the living.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Man does not know wisdom's worth, and it cannot be found anywhere in the land of the living.
Overview
Job declares that wisdom has no market value man can set and cannot be located among the living by human searching. It transcends the entire created realm that humanity inhabits and explores. This humbling truth drives the seeker beyond himself to God, the only source of wisdom, fulfilled in the gospel where God makes Christ to be our wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Prov 8:18–19With me are riches, honor, enduring wealth, and prosperity.
- Prov 3:14–15For her good profit is better than getting silver, and her return is better than fine gold.
- Prov 8:11For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can’t be compared to it.
- Prov 23:23Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
- Ps 119:72The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YUD
- Isa 53:8He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
- Prov 16:16How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
- Job 28:21–22Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
- Ps 19:10More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
- Job 28:15–19It can’t be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
- Eccl 8:16–17When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
- Ps 52:5God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
- Matt 13:44–46“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.
- Isa 38:11I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 28:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.